HERE+NOW.IMPULSE MAGAZINE // Special Edition 2019

Facts
Food and agriculture
in Saxony-Anhalt
100
1.2
Saxony-Anhalt has
approximately 1.2 million
hectares of land which
is used agricultural
purposes, around 85 percent
of which is arable land.
Klein Wanzleben is one
of the oldest locations
for sugar pro duction
in Germany.
Saxony Anhalt is home
to soil of the highest quality.
In many places, the maximum
soil value of 100 is achieved.
In the food industry,
Saxony-Anhalt
is home to 22,500
companies with at
least 20 employees.
have been produced at the industrial level for 65
years. Klötze is home to the first German algae
farm, which remains one of the biggest in Europe
to this day. Since 2004, it is mainly the micro
algae Chlorella that has been cultivated here
in a 500 kilometre long tube system made of
glass. This saves space and energy and provides
protection against contamination. Roquette
Klötze GmbH also cultivates approximately 15
other species of algae to order. A second plant in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has recently
begun producing heat-loving Spirulina with the
use of a completely new technology.
“It would be a world’s first.
We want to develop new products for
supermarkets here and to manufacture
and market these products locally.
We also want to educate the public
about what algae can do.”
KIRSTIN KNUFMANN
Jörg Ullmann has been working at the
algae farm since 2004 and assumed
management of the plant in Klötze in 2012.
“We see ourselves here as a biomass producer,”
says the expert for powders and pellets made
from microalgae. “PureRaw, on the other hand,
is closer to the end customer and knows what
people want and what appeals to them best.”
Together, Kirstin Knufmann and Jörg Ullman
are able to develop healthy and popular products
and market them successfully: “BOBEI”
powder replaces the ingredients of butter and
egg during baking. The instant drink mixture
“Unicorn Magic” brings the natural blue
colouring of the Spirulina algae with all of its
valuable ingredients into the glass.
Collaborations are also under way with other
companies and much is in secret preparation.
“We’ve got some cracking ideas in the pipeline,”
says Ullmann, discussing the crunchy algae
snack “Helga” and the organic drink of the
same name, for example. There are also icecream
mixes and algae noodles and they are
also giving pastries a go. A fruit press adds the
algae powder from Klötze to fruit juices, thereby
covering the daily requirement for vitamin
B12. And yet Knufmann and Ullmann are a long
way from having had enough of algae. “We
need more great, sexy products,” they say.
They are both dreaming of their own
research and competence centre in
Klötze. With business partners and courageous
start-ups, they want to concentrate expertise
at the location. “It would be a world’s first.
We want to develop new products for supermarkets
here and to manufacture and market
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